Jo-Jo
Neither of them likes to be called “Josie”
Five years ago. It had been the last time Riley Baster, Felicity Santarossa and Jozefien Sterckx departed the Willem van Madocke College as students. Riley and Joey’s last exam had been mathematics in an overcrowded cafeteria, where the other teachers had also decided to pack in their students rather than bothering to find a still vacant classroom. Flick, being in a different class entirely, had history in an almost serene environment since the adjacent classrooms were empty. Afterwards Riley and Joey compared answers and to their distress discovered they had different solutions to problems they were both sure to be correct on (the historical precedent tended to favor Joey in this regard). Regardless, barring disastrous results, they were done with high school forever. They hadn’t felt this good on the day of any exam since the morning when it was announced the terrible principal had been fired to the applause of everyone, staff included.
‘Hey, Jozefien!’ a voice yelled from behind them.
The three girls looked back and saw one of their now-former classmates, Joachim Brachen, running up to them.
‘Hey. What’s up?’ Joey asked.
Joachim was nervously rubbing his hands and seemed to have stopped blinking. ‘I was just wondering,’ he said slightly out of breath. ‘I was wondering if perhaps you’d be willing to go out with me sometime.’
Now it was Joey’s turn to stop blinking, and together with Riley and Flick she stood in silence with her eyes and mouth wide open. The two girls in the background turned to each other and smiled in excitement, but Joey remained as if petrified.
‘Go on,’ Riley whispered, but Joey had tuned her out.
‘Why isn’t she talking?’ Flick asked.
‘I’m sorry. Of course you wouldn’t,’ Joachim said dejectedly and started turning around.
‘Wait, I didn’t say no,’ Joey finally said and she reached for his arm.
‘Really? You would?’
‘Yeah, sure. You just caught me off guard is all.’
Riley and Flick high-fived each other.
‘So … do you have a preference of what you’d like to do?’ Joachim asked.
‘Well, I like movies. I mean, who doesn’t? But I mean more than usual,’ Joey said.
‘Way more than usual,’ Riley interjected.‘Great! So maybe are you free tomorrow at seven? Perhaps we could meet up at the cinema to catch a movie?’
‘Sure, sounds awesome.’
‘Great, I’ll see you there then.’
Joey put her finger up. ‘One small thing though.’
‘Yeah?’
‘Please just call me “Joey”.’
‘Okay, Joey.’
Joachim walked away noticeably more upbeat than before, and Joey herself went back to friends who could not contain their excitement.
‘Look at our Joey stealing hearts!’ Flick said.
‘You looked like you were going to croak out there for a moment,’ Riley said.
Joey stood slumped and held her hand to her chest. ‘I’m not sure I didn’t. Did it suddenly get warmer out here?’
‘Joachim Brachen crushing on our Jo. I honestly couldn’t have called that. If anything I thought he was into B,’ Flick said.
‘Me? Nah, I’m pretty sure he twitches every time he sees me because he’s scared of me. Heck, it might be my fault he waited until the last week of school to finally make a move,’ Riley said. ‘Sorry about that.’
Joey’s hands went into her hair. ‘Oh my God, you guys. I don’t know if I can do this. What do I say? What do I wear? What if he doesn’t like me?’
Flick moved in and put her arm around Joey. ‘Look, he asked you so he obviously already likes you. Just be yourself. You’re going to see a movie and nobody has more practice on that terrain than Joey Stark.’
‘Plus did you see how he was shivering just now? The dude is probably going to be just as nervous as you, if not more,’ Riley said.
‘You do like the guy, don’t you?’ Flick asked.
‘He’s a bit too 80’s Anthony Michael Hall I guess, but yeah, I think I do.’
‘Great, we’ll take a detour through the department store and see if we can get you decent,’ Flick said.
‘Last day of school, we’re supposed to go a bit crazy anyway!’ Riley said.
-Next Evening-
‘You sure you’ll be alright?’
‘Yeah, dad. I’ll be fine. I’m just nervous,’ Joey said.
Joey’s father had offered her a ride to the cinema. Usually Joey would go either on foot or by bike considering she only lived three streets away, and with traffic the way it was walking tended to be the faster option in the early evening. For the purpose of not messing up her current attire that option was somewhat impractical, and Michael Sterckx was particularly interested in sizing up the boy interested in his daughter.
‘Just remember, don’t let him force you into anything you don’t want. If you call or text, I’ll be here in five minutes.’
Joey chuckled. ‘With this traffic you’ll have the police on your heels if you try to make that kind of time, dad.’
‘Good. They might need to restrain me from going off on that kid.’
‘Joachim’s nice, dad. Nothing will happen.’ Joey kissed fer father on the forehead and stepped out of the car.
Joachim Brachen stood at the doors of the cinema, as they had agreed. He was dressed as finely as his adolescent wardrobe allowed, and felt quite inadequate when he saw how the otherwise tomboyish Joey arrived. She was wearing an all-green dress, with a long skirt (a skirt!) underneath which poked slightly darker green heels as high as would allow her to not stumble every step (which means they were barely off the ground at all).
‘You look beautiful,’ Joachim said with a crackle in his voice.
‘Thanks. I feel like the mascot for a Saint Patrick’s Day parade, but the girls insisted it looked good on me.’
‘Your friends have good taste.’
‘I doubt that, but I’m glad you like it.’
Both of them threw goofy smiles at each other until it got awkward. Finally it was Joachim who broke the silence. ‘So, I guess we should go in?’
After Tom Hanks had found the final resting place of the Holy Grail and Joey and Joachim had had a couple of drinks, they exited the theater complex.
‘Is your dad coming to pick you up?’
‘If I call. Was planning on just walking home though. It’s not that far,’ Joey said.
‘Mind an escort? You never know with these streets at night.’
Joey laughed. ‘Yeah, better beware the crime-riddled underbelly of Roaming City. You never know what weirdos are out after sunset. I wouldn’t mind the company though.’
‘Cool. I’ll just have to get my bike from the alley real quick.’
Five minutes later Joey and Joachim were wandering the emptying streets of nighttime Roaming by streetlight. Aside from the rare car passing by, the loudest sound came from the wheels and chain of the bike Joachim was pushing. Joey was walking happily by his side, unsure of when she had last felt this warmth in her chest.
‘So movies are your thing, right? Did you like this one?’ Joachim asked.
‘It was okay. I guess it sort of works as Indiana Jones for art enthusiasts, I just thought Tom Hanks was a bit too vanilla for the part.’
‘Yeah, I wonder how accurate all that stuff was anyway. I’m sure a lot of people will buy into that “greatest cover-up” stuff purely for being so salacious, but it seemed way too conspiracy theory for me.’
‘Probably. I don’t think we should be holding our breath for a real descendant of Jesus Christ to be found.’ Joey pondered for a second. ‘Can I ask you something?’
‘Of course.’
‘Why did you ask me out?’ Joey asked.
‘Well, I like you,’ Joachim shrugged.
‘I mean, why now? We’ve more or less known each other our entire lives. You didn’t just figure out that you liked me this last week of high school, did you?’
Joachim sighed. ‘I mean, I realized I liked you since last year. You know, that group project where we had Ancient Egypt? You were so much fun to hang out with, but I didn’t have the guts to say anything. Then I started talking myself out of it. You know, “what if she hates me? Would race be a problem? Would Baster ever let me hear the end of it?”’
‘Riley? What does Riley have to do with it?’
‘I don’t know. I just think she’s kind of mean and scary. I had this picture in my mind of me asking you out, and her just laughing in my face.’
‘Holy crap, she was right. She thinks you’re scared of her.’
‘I guess,’ Joachim shrugged. ‘I know she’s your best friend, so I thought she would insist you deserved better than me or whatever.’
‘It’s true that she’s not always considerate of other people’s feelings, but I really can’t imagine her being that petty. For the record, she was totally rooting for you,’ Joey smiled.
‘Really?’
‘She also said she’d kick your ass if this date went south though,’ Joey laughed.
‘It hasn’t though, has it?’ Joachim asked with only mild distress.
‘Nah, you were the perfect gentleman. Besides, Riley’s noodle limbs couldn’t kick anyone’s ass.’
Joachim laughed, which faded in a chuckle. ‘I guess I might have misjudged her.’
‘So all this time you were really just too nervous, but now when the year is almost over you decided to go for it?’
‘Yeah,’ Joachim sighed again. ‘I was afraid that after high school I’d just never see you again. Nothing left to lose, right?’
‘Hmm, I guess in some way it might be better this way. Dating someone in the same class sounds a bit too much like a full-time commitment. Perhaps better if we just gradually get to know each other now rather than being in each other’s faces the entire day.’
‘Does that mean you’ll go out with me again?’
‘Sure. Truth is … I never really thought about you as, you know, boyfriend material, but to be honest I don’t hate the idea either. We’ll see what happens, but I want to give it a shot.’
At this point Joey had stopped walking as they had in fact reached the front door of her house. A point Joachim picked up on when he noticed they had just passed the sign of Stark Video with its opening hours in front of the adjacent building.
Joey kissed him on the cheek and walked up to her front door. ‘You got me on messenger, right?’
Joachim was momentarily stunned in a “I will never wash this cheek again” moment. ‘Uhm, yeah … yeah.’
‘We’ll talk later then.’
‘I’d love that. Goodnight.’
‘Goodnight.’
Joey turned the handle and walked in. As soon as she had closed the door she felt all the anxiety she had been suppressing roll over her like a tidal wave. Good lord, it was a miracle she had been able to keep her cool for so long. She slid down with her back against the door to the floor, trying to calm down, and waiting for Joachim to have left the street. Her family evidently had not yet heard her come in, otherwise they would be playing A Million Questions by now (on top of her big sister wondering how much she paid the guy to pay attention to her). No, they would wait a little while longer. She had promised the scoop to two other overly-curious friends.
‘Hey! You pushed me!’ Flick shouted as she watched her snowboarder avatar fall off a rail and faceplanting into the snow.
‘Payback for last round’s knockdown, bench,’ Riley replied.
The two of them had decided to wait for news on Joey’s date at Riley’s place, and had naturally moved to playing Riley’s collection of extreme sports games (currently SSX On Tour) in her room while promptly losing track of time.
‘Dammit! You made me end up in fourth!’
‘Don’t sweat it. I’m sure you’ll find new and inventive ways to screw me over next time.’
‘Speaking of time, it’s getting pretty late. Think Joey will be home soon?’ Flick looked at her watch. It was twenty three minutes until midnight.
Riley lay down backwards and waved her controller as if it were a fan. ‘Movie should have been over a while ago, so she’s probably having fun. She’d better hurry up though or the twelve ‘o clock bell might turn that dress back into a pumpkin.’
‘I’m pretty sure it was the carriage that turned into a pumpkin. The dress just turned into lesser dress.’
Riley sprang back upwards. ‘Regardless, we’ll probably hear from her soon or we should gradually start worrying that Mr Brachen is less innocent than we assume. In the meantime I’ll gladly proceed with wiping the mountain with your face.’
‘Oh yeah? We’ll see about that.’ Flick picked up her controller, and the two continued in another event.
They had a great time singling each other out for knockdowns while the non-playable opponents kept getting further and further ahead of them. Then, just as Riley had become stuck between two buildings, Flick’s phone beeped.
‘Pause! Pause!’ Flick rolled over in her bean bag and flipped open her phone. ‘It’s Jo!’
‘Well, what does she have to say?’
‘She’s waiting outside.’
‘Well then, let’s go!’ Riley shouted.
Flick and Riley jumped up and ran out of Riley’s room, down the stairs, through the dining area. Riley opened the back door and found Joey standing there, still in her dress.
‘So, how did it go?’ Riley asked.
Joey’s mouth turned to a smile that lit up her entire face.